December 2017 - Completion Walk-Through

After testing various loads including internet, lighting, washer, dryer, hydronic pumping, water pumping, macerator lift pump, computers, refrigerator, freezer, vaccuum cleaner, microwave oven, cutoff saw and power tools, and other various appliances - the working system is this:

Cost of Electricity Production

Hint: These numbers are very important. Study them to understand the true cost of PV. It is essentially free over a lifetime of use

Assume 6 hours of sun and 20 year lifetime for the 3 kW array

Cost total was $1800 for the panels, $3K for balance of system.

Take 20 years * 3kW -> 131,000 kwhrs.

For $3000, we get 131,000 kwhrs, or a cost of 2.3 cents per kWhr.

If extend to 50 year life with double the electricity, decreasing 1% per year - we get down to about 1.2 cents per kWhr. This is close to free.

Sahara Case

If we are in the Sahara, it is 8.5 hrs of sun instead of 6 ,lowering cost to 1.1 cents per kwhr

Lifetime is 80% of initial power at 20 years, so on average it is 90% of rated value. So really 1.2 cents per kWhr in the sahara. But, that means we have 30 more years practically - between 80-50%, or 65% on average. Therefore, another 181000 kWhr - so price goes down to about 0.5 cents per kwhr over a 50 year life.

Thus, the practical cost in Maysville could be 0.8 cents per kWhr over a lifetime. Much less than coal or nuclear.

Hydrogen Production

The cost of hydrogen production is $4 per kg if we consider 10 cent per kwhr standard costs of commercial PV energy. But, it is 40 cents per gallon equivalent if we use open source photovoltaics like in our Seed Eco-Home.

This means that we need data right now - on a full system from PV to hydrogen engines.

Can start with industrial hydrogen bought off the shelf, with multifuel test engines via the Engine Construction Set.